Rogue enforcer, p.11
Rogue Enforcer, page 11
How good was their sense of smell? If we were talking human-ish, I was probably okay. But dog? Or worse, a bear? I was screwed.
I tightened my grip on both weapons and tried not to make a single sound. I didn’t dare call out to Cormac. These things would hear me and be on me before he could get here.
In less than a minute, I had my answer. The creature nearest me stopped and lifted its head to sniff the air. The others did the same, as if their three minds were connected. Creepy.
As one unit, they turned and stared directly at me.
“Cormac!” I screamed.
They gathered their hind legs to jump.
The center creature leaped at me. Directly in front of me, the black head and snapping jaws just cleared the top. It ripped holes in the material I sat on with its front claws and hung by its front two feet, scrambling to get up with the back two.
By sheer dumb luck, I managed to plunge my knife somewhere in the thing’s neck.
Good news, it fell to the floor.
Bad news, it took my knife with it.
The one on my right leaped, the front half of its body joining me on my perch. I rolled to my side, kicking at it with my boot as I fired my ion blaster at the head of the third monster climbing up on my left. It hadn’t jumped at me, but it shoved its claws through the panel and was walking up as easily as if there were stairs.
The blaster shots were doing nothing. Barely slowing it down.
I kicked the other off the top, but I knew it would leap back up as soon as it got its feet under it. They were both going to be on me, and I had nothing to fight with.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
15
Cormac
Iunderstood rage. I understood vengeance. I had never seen anything close to this level of savagery as the Atlans settled the score with the Hive who had kept them captive.
Limbs flew in every direction. Arms. Legs. Upper half of a torn and shredded body. Lower half. Literal pieces of the Hive reinforcements that had come off that ship landed around me with solid thuds.
Twice I had to dodge a particularly angry throw by Enzo. Calm on the outside, wrath on the inside.
Fuck me. No wonder Atlan Warlords were the most feared fighters in the galaxy. This wasn’t a battle. This was carnage.
I didn’t dare step between a beast and any of the Hive. Not only was I not needed, I wasn’t sure some of the beasts were of a mind to recognize friend from foe.
I remained near the entrance to the control room to handle any stragglers that might make their way toward my mate. I’d killed enough for one day. If they needed me, I’d fight. However, the odds of that were looking slim.
“Cormac!”
Ruk’s shout drew my attention. He was pointing to the rock cliffs that formed an arc with the base at its center.
Creatures clung to the walls, at least twelve that I could see, with a possibility of more hiding behind rocks or in the shadows. Their bodies black and scaled, they looked small, perhaps knee high. Regardless of their size, they had the silver eyes and integrated circuitry and pieces on their bodies that designated them as part of the Hive.
The Hive was using animals now?
And what the fuck were those things? I’d never seen a native creature on any world that looked like this. Perhaps they were from the Hive home world. Wherever that was.
Their claws and teeth looked like they could do some serious damage. If there were a good number of them, and they coordinated their attack with Hive mind control? Not good. Not fucking good at all.
Did the Coalition know about these things?
“You go right. I’ll go left?” I yelled to Ruk.
Ruk didn’t answer. He sprang at the creature nearest him with a roar.
I didn’t have time to see what happened because the creature nearest me chose that moment to attack.
I fired my blaster. Direct hit.
Fuck. They had shields, too.
Three of them surrounded me like a pack on a wild hunt. I didn’t have Ruk’s claws. I had two knives and a mate to protect.
“Come on!” I yelled at the one in the center. As I’d hoped, it charged me.
Twisting away at the last moment, I drove both knives into its side and threw it at its companion, keeping hold of the knives’ handles as the black, scaly body slipped off the blades and then slammed into the second creature. I knew I had only seconds before the one I had buried beneath the carcass of its friend was on its feet again. I turned to face the third, rushing the thing to force a fight.
The animal leaped at me, muzzle going for my throat. I used its momentum against it and slammed us both to the ground, driving my blade through its skull when we landed. I shoved and twisted until I felt ground beneath the tip.
A low screeching sound caused me to look up from where I lay on top of the corpse. Drawing my legs beneath me into a crouched position, I yanked the blade from the skull at my side and held the screeching thing’s gaze.
I recognized intelligence there. Frightening. Focused. Furious that I’d murdered two of its friends. “What are you?”
The monster opened its mouth as if to respond, another screech like metal grinding on metal. I shook my head to clear it of the hideous sound.
“Cormac!”
Abby? My mate sounded terrified.
“Abby!” I was out of time.
I rushed the creature in front of me, expecting it to leap for my throat as the other had. As expected, it leaped. Timing my thrust just right, I plunged both blades into its neck as I caught it. Claws raked down my arms from shoulder to elbow. Searing pain exploded where it sliced through my armor, like acid burning through muscle to bone.
“Abby!”
I threw the carcass aside and ran for the entrance of the base. I reached the door in time to see my mate stab one of the creatures climbing toward her.
Another was nearly upon her, snapping at her feet despite the kicks she managed to land on the monster’s head. A third climbed up the side of the panel. She hit it in the hide with ion blasts, but the weapon didn’t have much effect.
“Cormac.” Abby whimpered my name as if she had lost all hope. She hadn’t seen me yet. That sound nearly broke me.
Something inside me snapped. I had battled. I had raged. I had killed. This fury was raw. Brutal. Primitive. And it was all for her.
I grabbed the creature snarling at her feet and slammed its spine down over my knee. The animal’s bones snapped and popped. I did not stop, literally ripping the thing in half like an Atlan.
Moving with every ounce of speed in my Hyperion and Hunter blood, I wrapped my hand around the hind leg of the climber and swung a wide arc, slamming the monster’s head into the hard floor, over and over until the body went limp. Probably would have kept going out of pure rage that they dared attack my mate, but a soft cry pulled me back to myself.
“Abby, are you hurt?”
“No. I don’t think so.” Her voice trembled, and I had to strain to hear it.
Turning to put her at my back, my attention on the door in case more of the fuckers slipped inside, I fought to slow my pulse. My breathing. I was holding on to my control by a thread. I’d nearly lost her. Half a second longer and…
Her small hand appeared in my peripheral vision as she reached down to touch my shoulders. “Oh god. You’re hurt!”
“I am fine, mate.”
“No, you’re not. Where is one of those green wand things?”
“The battle is not over, Abby. I will tend the wound when I know you are safe.”
I expected her to argue. This was Abby, after all. Instead, she rested her hand just above the wound, as if touching me brought her comfort.
“Okay.”
Minutes seemed like hours as I listened to the sounds of the fighting coming to an end. Ruk’s raging occurred less and less often. I heard voices speaking to one another rather than the chaos and noise of battle.
Ruk and Stryck of the thumping fists appeared next to one another at the entrance.
“Everything all right in here?” Ruk asked.
“Yes. Is it over?”
“For now,” the big Atlan beast responded.
“Did we lose anyone?”
The Atlan snorted at me as if that was a stupid question. Perhaps it was, but I didn’t have time to think any more of it because my mate cried out. I turned in time to catch her as she leaped into my arms. She trembled but didn’t speak. Expecting a massive explosion of tears, I didn’t know what to do with this quiet, shivering female, had no idea how to comfort her.
“Abby?”
“Just don’t let go.”
“Never.” I lifted her into my arms and told her to hide her face in my neck as I walked past the ground covered in blood, body parts and pieces of the dead Hive and their strange creatures. There had been many more than the few I had seen. Many, many more.
The Atlans were moving in and out of the Hive ship. I did not know what they were doing, but they appeared to know how to operate the small transport. Good. Perhaps we could get the fuck off this rock.
I needed to get my mate home to Rogue 5. Safe. Far, far away from the Hive, the Coalition Fleet and this war.
My mate would not suffer this terror again.
Abby
Cormac’s arms were the only two things keeping me from breaking into a million pieces and sobbing until I had no tears left. I’d never been that scared in my life.
Cormac was amazing. Strong. Devoted. Sexy. Kind. Everything I could want in a mate. I was head-over-heels in love with him. Gone. I wanted to be with him forever.
Outer space, however, sucked. Sucked great big, fat, hairy balls.
The Atlans were preparing the Hive ship for takeoff. Cormac probably assumed we would all be going to the same place. But I’d made a promise, and I intended to keep it as Enzo and the Atlans had kept theirs.
Cormac was alive. That had been my condition. No matter what happened, they had to keep him alive. I didn’t see the fight. I had no idea what had happened. Cormac was holding me. Right now that was the only thing I cared about.
“Thank you.” I lifted my free arm—the other was locked between his body and my side—and wrapped it around his neck. “You saved my life.”
“You are mine, Abby. I will always protect you. Always come for you.”
It wasn’t exactly I love you, but I’d take it. For now.
Cormac’s arms had pretty much stopped bleeding where one of those things had clawed him to shreds. Now there were fresh red wet spots staggered her and there. “Do the Hive have those green wand things?”
“I have one stored in my suit.”
“What?” I slapped my hand against his chest. “You put me down right now. Are you kidding me?”
Cormac kept walking toward the Hive ship.
“No. Put. Me. Down.”
He stopped but did not release me. Instead, he tightened his arms around me and lowered his head until our helmets connected. “I need you close, Abby. I need you safe in my arms.”
Sweet. It really was, but I was a practical girl in all the ways that counted. “And I need to take care of you. You are injured and in pain.”
“The pain is nothing.”
“Not to me,” I whispered. “Now, mate, please put me down and give me that green wand so I can stop worrying about you bleeding to death or getting rabies or something.”
“What is rabies?”
“Nevermind. Just…please.”
Cormac lowered me to the ground, and I stood before him with my hand out until he dug around in his suit and produced the healing gadget. He activated it somehow and gave it to me.
“Thank you. Now, sit. Or lay down. I don’t care, but I’m using this thing all over you, and I can’t reach your head.”
My mate went down on one knee like a knight from Camelot and bowed his head so I could reach everywhere.
I moved as slowly as I dared, starting with the nasty furrowed slices on his shoulders and upper arms. Once the wand flashed a different color—which I assumed meant it was done doing whatever it needed to do—I started at the top of his head and covered every inch of him. He was mine, too. I didn’t care if he was covered in blood and gore, as long as none of it was his.
His breathing slowed as I worked, and I took that as a good sign until he suddenly reached out and pulled me to him, his head resting dead center in my chest. He stayed there like a little boy who needed comfort, his arms locked around me until one of the Atlans yelled that the ship was ready and it was time to go.
Cormac stood, and I gave him a quick, tight squeeze around his waist before turning to yell at the first Atlan I saw.
“Stryck, come here, please.”
The Atlan, still in beast mode, moved with shocking fluidity to stand a few paces in front of me. I looked him over from head to toe. Yep. Covered in blood and guts and god only knew how much of it was his.
“Have a seat, big guy. And hold out those hands.” He’d spent who knows how long pounding at his prison cell. I imagined every bone in his hand must have been broken dozens of times.
Stryck did not sit. He knelt on one knee, as Cormac had. And he…shrank. Kind of. His face returned to normal, his body still huge but not Incredible Hulk proportions. He held out his hand, first one, then the other. When the light flickered, he moved them around, pulling away when I tried to lift the wand to a nasty-looking cut on his head. Instead, he inclined his head to me in a small bow. “Thank you, my lady. The rest of my injuries are minor. Others require your attention first.”
Were all aliens this freaking noble and selfless and just…wow. “Okay. Who should I chase down first?”
“Your legs are too short for a hunt. You would catch none of us.”
“It’s a turn of phrase. Never mind. Who’s hurt the worst?”
“The Hyperion.”
16
Abby
“Ruk?” Ruk was hurt? Badly?
I felt Cormac stiffen in alarm and realized I hadn’t seen the big guy since he’d peeked his head in the entrance to ask if we were all right. “Where is he?”
“He is already on board the ship. We carried him to the cargo area and covered him in blankets. He wears no armor, and Latiri 4 is cold.”
“You aren’t wearing armor, either,” I pointed out. In fact, he wasn’t wearing anything except a pair of ripped pants. I wasn’t dead. Nine super-sized, gorgeous men—aliens, don’t forget they are aliens—with more muscles than seemed right or fair? And all on display? At the moment, I had my own professional, nearly naked basketball team. Except bigger. And taller. Some darker skinned. Some light. All magnificent.
And I didn’t want any of them. Not like that. I was a one man kind of girl. My man.
“Okay. Take us to him, please.” I glanced back over my shoulder at Cormac. I was more than willing to help these guys heal, but I was still too rattled by nearly being eaten alive by those scary black scaly dog monsters to let my mate out of my sight. I needed him next to me, or I wouldn’t feel safe. At all. “Will you come with me?”
Cormac snorted as if I had asked the most ridiculous question ever spoken. Even Stryck grinned, a bloody, feral thing on his face. He was so terrifying and so adorable all at once that no words would form in my mouth. These guys were just like the Atlans on Earth. Heartbreakers, every one of them.
Stryck led the way. I followed of my own accord until I stumbled, just a bit, over a rock I hadn’t seen. The next instant Cormac was carrying me again. I was tired and scared and grateful that he was mine.
Ruk was in worse shape than any of the Atlans. He was lying on his back near a wall in the cargo area of the Hive ship. I knelt beside him with the wand and started on the multitude of cuts I could see on his face. Based on Cormac’s wounds, I figured they would only take a few seconds to close, and I thought it might be nice for Ruk to have at least one place on his body that didn’t hurt.
He watched me with quiet eyes, but neither spoke nor made any protest. Face as good as I could get it without being able to see through the dried blood, I reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m going to pull the blanket down now and take a look at you. Okay?”
It seemed like he nodded. I wasn’t sure. But he squeezed my hand, so I knew he heard me.
Shaking, I peeled the blanket down his body, from chin to hip bones—I didn’t dare go lower, not yet. Tears clogged my throat as I took in the criss-cross of raw, gaping wounds on his chest. “What did you do to yourself?”
Cormac got down on the floor next to me to inspect the damage up close. “He defeated at least twelve Hive Soldiers and twice as many of the creatures who tried to kill you.”
“What?” I looked down at Ruk, knowing my shock would show clearly on my face. I did nothing to hide it. “No wonder you look like shit,” I said as I lowered the wand to the widest of the gaping wounds.
Ruk’s chest began to shake up and down. Scowling now, I looked into his face again. “Hold still, you maniac. I’m trying to help you.”
The shaking grew worse, and I waved the healing wand to and fro, trying to get the glowing green end as close to the wound as possible.
“Stop moving. I’m serious. You are not going to die, so knock it off and hold still.”
Low, rumbling laughter echoed through the cargo area. Apparently, he found something about this bloody mess amusing.
“Cormac?” he said.
“I’m here. You really should hold still. You’ve lost a lot of blood.” My mate placed his hand gently on his friend’s shoulder, and I started there. Maybe Cormac could hold at least one part of this stubborn alien still.
